Sarah Rose

Sarah Rose is a writer living in New York City. She thinks that’s the greatest sentence she ever wrote.

Sarah Rose is the author of FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History (Viking), the true story of a 19th Century botanist who traveled undercover in Qing China to steal the secrets of tea for England and the East India Company; the largest act of corporate espionage in the history of the world. Named the BBC’s Book of the Week, FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA was called “a wonderful combination of scholarship and storytelling” by NPR and “An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addiction,” by the Financial Times. It was named a 2010 Editor’s Choice pick in Booklist, 2010 Best in History and Biography in Strategy+Business magazine, and received an AudioPhile Earphones Award for the best author-read audiobook.

In Hong Kong, Miami and New York, Sarah has covered a broad range of beats including international politics and economics during the Hong Kong handover, finance and business during the end of the dot com bubble, the environment, and local stories such as cops, courts, schools and pancake breakfasts. She is the Dynasties columnist for The Wall Street Journal, the relationship columnist at Men’s Fitness, and writes about food and travel for publications such as Outside, Departures, Men’s Journal and Bon Appetit.

A Chicago native, Sarah holds degrees from Harvard College and the University of Chicago. She has been awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ First Prize in Reporting, the Lowell Thomas Award for Feature Writing, the North American Travel Journalists Association Grand Prize in Writing and was a grant recipient from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

2 comments

Hi Sarah,
I have just bought and read the book which I found excellent. I am researching my own Scottish gardening roots in connection with the Falconer brothers Hugh and Alexander and wonder whether you can remember in which of the sources you quote in “All the Tea..” you found the material about Hugh, since I would like to consult the original.
Many thanks for a wonderful book which has been so useful to me.
Next stop Calcutta!
Keith